Lake Columbia

[Justinm]

Just started fishing this lake this year and I have been really having lots of fun catching Wipers. These pics are from 2 weeks ago. This is my first wiper ever and my friend brents first wiper ever. Fish caught on rattle Traps

[Justinm]

should have went to the milwaukee river today!! I had much higher expectations as I made it out to the lake by 4:00 am and fished until 10:00 am. Caught a few small wipers around 16 inches, about 10 cats with the biggest being 20 inches and one big fat snapping turtle. I did miss one monster wiper it broke me off and it is my fault for not having powerpro on that rod. I am fairly confident that I can go back and do much better now that I have found fish. I hope I am not giving away some big secret here but to be totally honest most of the wipers came on meat. Just dead gills or we even brought along some beef and just choped it up. I did not have one strike on rattle traps, blade baits or spoons.

Justin

[Steve White]

Justin,

Don't feel bad about letting a cat out of the bag. Ever since they shut down the feeders and introduced all the new fish meat has been the best bait. That goes back many many years. Gills have always been the best live or dead. Easy enough to catch a bunch right out of the rocks on just about anything. Always seems the real little ones (3-4") work best alive. Next time out try those storm baits that look like gills. Had 3 get ripped to shreds last time out.

I'll have to dig some old pics out from when feeders were still there. Had some pics of fish boiling all over the surface.

Tight lines,

Steve

[Justinm]

The wipers are still biting out on lake columbia. They seem to be scattered all over the lake. We had fish on the cold side and the warm side. Most fish caught on rattle traps and meat. didnt get any super big ones but these 2 fish where my friend jonnys first fish ever so he was mega excited!

[LM Lunatic]

I was out in the past week and caught many large hybrids. They are about to drop some serious weight. About every fish that was caught had eggs seeping from the belly. If a state record is going to be caught this winter it will be in next week or two after that the fish will be too skinny. Crank has been best bait for big fish in the 8-10lb range smaller 2-5 lbders being caught on twistertails.

[Justinm]

Our group caught 6 wipers and a cat today in about 4 hours. It was pretty slow but I will post pics later.

On our way back we noticed 5 dead wipers in the trash can! One was only about 5 inches while the rest where over 18. And people wonder why this lake sucks so much.

Justin

[dennis]

no offense justin, but nothing about this lake sucks...yeah it can be tough, but put in your time and figure out a few secrets and the fish often come quite easy....the entire month of january and the beginning of february I was averaging a wiper about every 10-15 minutes....Usually the largies are as easy as a white spinnerbait (I don't target them often), but this year they are few for some reason....Good luck, the temps are now such that the wipers can be literally ANYWHERE....

[Justinm]

I agree the lake doesnt suck it is a lot of fun to get out and do some open water fishing in the winter and I have had a lot of success all winter on the wipers. But this is my first year fishing the lake and everytime I check other message boards people are complaining about how poor the fishing is getting.

Everytime I go out I see people keeping all the wipers they catch and now I find a bunch of dead ones in the trash. On another board someone said the wipers where found at the launch and where maybe a die off but I dont believe that becuase many of them had their heads cut off.

Justin

[slob sticker]

Columbia has gone downhill in some aspects due to heavier pressure and fish being kept. The fishing can still be exceptional as Dennis said if you are willing to put time and effort in. I have seen many guys take big bass and hybrids home in the last couple years and it has brought the numbers down some but keep this in mind less mouths to feed in the lake means more forage for those fish left. This year has been the best year for big hybrids for me. Last year 20-30 largemouth days were norm but they were skinny as could be. This year not catching hardly any largies but the bellies on the ones I have caught have been bigger. The main thing to keep in mind is that many fish in Lake Columbia are often not even catchable due to the refuge. The cold refuge isnt very large but the warm side refuge encompasses alot of acres that the fish can swim in with no danger of being hooked.

[YLAB]

This fish didn't suck! :)

[Justinm]

awesome fish YLAB! did you get the pics of the butter bass this weekend? I have friday off we should go catch some more!

Justin

[YLAB]

Justin - I work till 4 or so on Friday, but Iplan on picking up my brother then trying to catch some bugle mouths.

[c3yangt]

was there monday morning with friends from 5am - 2pm. the weather was fairly nice. caught a few rock bass, gills, and sunfish (6"). some catfishes (about 6-8 (7-9") - 1 (18") - 1 (25"). some 15" or less smallmouths. a few 16or less largemouths (only 1 (19"). about 6-7 hybrids (20-25"). was not a bad day overall.

[Lyubaka]

hey guys do you ever target the cooling pond in the hot part of the year?
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6762/033jc3.jpg

This is a fellow angler from back home with the new record European Catfish... 112kg(~250 lbs) on a live crucian carp Silurus Glanis

[slob sticker]

I fished Columbia recently. I would fish elsewhere if bass are your target. Caught a few but water was 95 and fish were inactive. Cats may be a whole nother story, I didnt put anytime in on them. I know where the hybrids are right now but I am saving them till winter.

[Justinm]

Walked around Columbia today for a few hours. Caught 3 wipers all around 16 inches and a little over a dozen cats with the largest only being about 17 inches. We threw rattle traps, spinners and crank baits for bass. Missed a real nice wiper on a spinner bait at the end of the day. This is a pic of my buddy Jim with his first Wiper ever!

Justin

[Justinm]

Fished columbia last weekend. There was a lot of people out enjoying the 40 degree weather!! I am just getting around to posting now - I met one person from this site out there I didnt catch your name but it was nice meeting you and I hope you put the smack down on the bass!!

We didnt catch a lot of fish - only 1 wiper and a lot of cats but I took my friend Jim and his dad out and my son leo - even though we didnt get lots of fish it was one of those trips that we will always remember.

Leo (my son) started learning how to set the hook! Now if I can only get my buddy jim to figure it out! hehehe!

[FishinJim]

Yeah Yeah,
Leo taught me a thing or two that day. Lots of fun, this lake is strange and always feels sort of alien when fishing it in the winter. However, my dad and I had a great time fishing, its been a while since we have been out together but tons of fun. I got to work my new St. Croix rod again (name drop), a few panfish hitting the spinners, other than that just bottom feeders. Justin I'll teach you to catch those hybrids sooner or later.

[Eric Haataja]

Taled to a buddy of mine who has been getting a lot of bass both largies and wipers. Swim baits, spoons, zips all worked well for him on the warm water side he was in a boat, he also did really well out on the pennisula for bass.

Eric

[dennis]

justin, nice to meet ya as well....Although I had one heck of an adventure in that belly boat (I had never been one and had all kinds of problems with control), after an hour an a half I finally got out there and started fishing...and yes, I laid the "smack down" on them there wipers.....weeeeee!

[dennis]

out yesterday with a friend and found the lake temps dropped 10 degrees in the past 4 days...couple that with the strong south winds we had yesterday and all the warmer water was being pushed into the refuge...no usual fog on the lake except for right under the warmwater discharge....warmest temps we got (outside the refuge, obviously) were 57, with the majority of the warm side 53-54....only ended up catching a pair of wipers in four hours....my most difficult day in nearly 3 years out here...nothin' like the last few weeks where you could literally catch as many as you wanted if you knew where to go....looks like cold for the next bunch of days, so probably won't get back out there till mid next week, hopefully the water temps rise a little bit during this cold front....c'mon powerplant pump that heat!!!

[dennis]

out yesterday, fishing is still tough....temps are steady, but water levels are up a good 2 feet....that water is coming in from the ice cold WI river (they sometimes do this when having water quality issues).....this cold water means that the cold side is very cold and the warm side is cool and nearly uniform. Temps at the lot were 53-54, out by the start of the point it was 57 and was 58-60 at the warm refuge line...I moved into the refuge (taking temps, not fishing) a good 2-250 yards and the water never got warmer than 61.....very few baitfish in the usual locations...normally the temp would be at least 5-10 degrees warmer that far in...looks like its one of those times when most of the biomass in the lake is right up at or near the warmwater discharge.....Went 1 for 3.....fished 12:15-4pm....hopefully next week is better and they continue to (or increase) pump in the heat....